Science Fiction Though the Decades

Monday, February 8, 2016

1985: The Monadic Universe (Zebrowski, George)

Very slow to peak in quality, but maintains
thereafter (3/5)

Joachim Boaz gives the best kind of gifts:
secondhand SF books; unfortunately, as per his sense of humor, he likes to
include atrociously bad titles such as Irving A. Greenfield’s Waters of Death
(1967). Rightfully, I look these gift-horses in the mouth… some are good, some
are bad. With Zebrowski’s The Monadic Universe, it started off as the
latter—bad, bad, bad, as he even stated himself, here.

Unlike Joachim’s own 1977 edition, my 1985 edition
has two additional stories, both of which add much needed quality to the
sluggish start of the collection: “Wayside World” (1977) and “The Word Sweep”
(1979). The first eight stories—yes, all eight—feel like good ideas wasted with
poor execution, especially the three chronological stories with Praeger; these
felt like non-stories, snippets of something that never gather enough momentum
of its own to push it toward relevance, thereby leaving it fledgling like a
lame duckling far behind its majestic mother. When compared to the last six stories—yes,
all six—the first eight are contrastingly poor. But, ah, the latter six stories
are all worthwhile, almost worthwhile enough to slog through the first eight…
but don’t do that.

“First Love, First
Fear” (1972, shortstory) – 2/5

His world limited to a
beach, its shallow waters, and the slope of ground inland, a boy doesn’t have
much company aside from his father and Jak. At thirteen years of age and having
never seen a live woman, his experiences are as limited as his environment on
the planet of Lea. Swimming to a shallow rock, an alien girl—the first he’s
ever seen—touches him and plays a seductive game of tag in the sea. Soon, a
bellow from the beach sends her off. Tim follows to learn a lesson of the
planet on which he lives. 10 pages

“Starcrossed”
(1973, shortstory) – 3/5

Robbed of his humanity
since before his birth, a boy’s mind was plucked from its prenatal state in
order to become a Modified Organic Brain capable of a near-light speed survey
mission to Antares. Prior to its slip into twelve years of transit through the
other-space, the Brain enters a sleep where dreams of mission fulfillment span
its inner void. Awakening with disorientation, the Brain feels and hears the
presence of a female who seeks his companionship as his probe comes close to
the hot radiating star. 7 pages

“Assassins of Air”
(1973, shortstory) – 2/5

Turning earth’s trash
into a moderate treasure, Praeger and his gang strip fossil-fuel burning cars
down one by one for the benefit of their pockets and the earth. Humble yet
illegal, Praeger knows that something better can be had with his life, so he
pays to sneak in lessons from the automated education machine. When his gang
learns of his lofty plans, their brotherhood turns to confrontation as they
harass him at home and as he attempts to leave the city. 9 pages

“Parks of Rest
and Culture” (1973, shortstory) – 2/5

Praeger’s job in the
city is the only thing that keeps him going in life. The park isn’t what it
used to be now that it’s devoid of life, his wife isn’t the person he married
because she has left him, and even the city seems to have turned ever uglier.
There’s only one lofty ambition that remains the sole light at the end of his
bleak tunnel: leave earth in favor of work in orbit or the moon. When he’s
summoned for just that job, he easily leaves behind everything that’s failed
him 12 pages

“The Water
Sculptor” (1970, shortstory) – 2/5

Perched in orbit
watching clouds tumult over the Pacific, Praeger feels content now that he’s
left earth behind, except for his occasional vacation back. After his failed
relationship with Betty, Praeger takes to a more mature relationship with
orbital artsist and self-made idol of success—Julian. As an artist, he forms
ice in abstract patterns to be left to decay by the grit and glare from the
solar system. After an interview, Julian speaks with Praeger and hints at his
dissatisfaction with everything. 8 pages

“Rope of Glass”
(1973, shortstory) – 3/5

Dying in a world where
dying is illegal, Sam Brickner ekes out a living with mimic-leukemia for which
he needs medicine. When euthanasia is the treatment for terminal illness and
old age, Sam is a rebel struggling with the side-effects in order to live a few
more years. Unknown to him, his wife has been seeing a man—Harry Andrews—for his
medicine; the relationship hasn’t been a professional one, and now Sam must
face something more than just losing his life. 13 pages

“Heathen God”
(1973, shortstory) – 3/5

Unbeknownst to most of
humankind, there actually was a real live creator of heaven and earth, yet that
creator only made the solar system and humankind. That singular creator happens
to still be alive and is a member of an alien race of whom humans only know of
the creator himself: a white-haired gnome. Forsakenly, he’s imprisoned on a
planet of gardens where soon two men secretly come to interview him for a
purpose greater than mere curiosity yet beyond blasphemy. 11 pages

“Interpose” (1971,
shortstory) – 3/5

Future humans with he
ability to travel through time are bent on pillaging history as they cut Jesus
down from the cross and transport him back to the future. Jesus understands
their plan in his omnipotent ways and escapes through time to 1915. After
twenty years living in a modern city, he’s disgusted by the twisting of his
teachings. Surviving on the street with his hand clutching a bottle of whisky,
his wise teachings are ignored on a daily basis and, near his death, on this
very occasion. 8 pages

“The History
Machine” (1972, shortstory) – 5/5

Very few people on the
good earth can own and use a history machine—historians are one of them. As
every event leaves a record of itself on the atomic level, humankind has
created a device that can record and replay these moments be they personal and
recent or significant and distant. One historian tapes his personal life, even
taping himself viewing historical events, which leads him to philosophize about
the impossibility of witnessing history objectively and without the onus of the
past. 7 pages

“The Cliometricon”
(1975, shortstory) – 4/5

General Eisenhower
stands on the cliffs of Dover where history
branches into his near-infinity of possible realities: he envisions Germany’s nuclear bomb over England, he is shot by an emerging U-boat and
swims to shore, or he decides the Allies should invade all of Europe.
This view of the branching of possible realities is made possible by the
Cliometricon, which one historian uses to view major events of the past, but
also illegally viewing events of his own life—the current now or the
alternative selves in alternative worlds. 8 pages

“Stance of
Splendor” (1973, shortstory) – 4/5

The subjective,
intangible self is a kernel of static memories, passing thoughts, and
blossoming ambition; it’s also a locus for self-deception, psychosis, and the
multi-faceted ego. One man, given immortality of sorts, experiences an
expansion of awareness through the earth, its solar system and its sun, through
near-space, the edges of the galaxy and its core. As he passes through and
becomes part of space, time is the one factor that defeats him, casting him
away from everything he once knew. 6 pages

“Wayside World”
(1977, novelette) – 4/5

Anneka’s elderly
30-year-old parents lie dying, a burden to her three male companions: alpha
male brothers Foler and Thessan along with the suppressed yet learned Ishbok.
After the death of her parents, Ishbok takes a gamble and stands up to the
brothers but doesn’t win support from the beautiful Anneka. From the base of a
city’s tower in which they reside, he flees higher and higher to the roof to be
left alone under the glare of the sun named Cleopatra and uncountable stars
that bring a wind a change. 29 pages

“The Monadic
Universe” (1972, novelette) – 4/5

Three ships are
forcefully sent away from earth toward the planet- and star-rich core of the
galaxy. On their eighty-year flight, the ships are confined to the enigmatic
void of hyperspace, with which humanity has only just begun to experiment… and
also why the ships were sent with such haste. One nameless ship harbors the
wakened minds of three men while hundreds more lie asleep. On the simulated
screen of the stars that reflect their passage in real-space, their sanity is
tested as the blank void of hyperspace begins to take form. 27 pages

“The Word Sweep”
(1979, shortstory) – 4/5

Words used to only
gather in minds and one paper, but spoken words begin to manifest in the air
and gather on the ground: whispers, secrets, conversations, speeches,
obscenities, sleep-talk, and radio-talk. Cities begin to flood under the daily
torrent of people’s collective utterances, the various shapes and forms of
their words needing to be shipped to landfills or the incinerator. Felix
enforces the rations of spoken words in a five-block square of the city; Bruno
is his friend who has an idea about the plague and the piling of all the words.
12 pages